This is a photo of my little girl.  When I saw this photo for the first time I gasped out loud… she isn’t so little anymore.  Isn’t it funny how the photo of your children that you carry in your mind is always about 2 years behind the reality.

It’s summer-time now and every summer Emily takes off on some travel adventure or another.  This year she is visiting family in Kansas City, upstate New York and finally my Parents in PA before we pick her up in New York in early August to bring her home again.  She has been gone for less than a week and already I wake every morning with that tug of yearning at my sternum.  I miss her so much when she is gone.  But – my little girl has a streak of independence so fierce that it carries her through situations that would have me on my knees weeping  I remember when my own Mother went back to work when I was in my teens and at 15 I would come home from school and immediately pick up the phone and call her in her office to find out what time she would be home.  When was the last time Emily called me since she left?  Ummmm… she hasn’t.  She has sent me some lovely emails…

Do I think that Emily misses me?  Yes.  Do I think that Emily feels as though she can’t get by without me?  Thank goodness, No.

Every day I resist the urge to call her several times and tell her how much I miss her – how that tug at my sternum bothers me constantly.  But I don’t and I won’t.  I am proud that my daughter forges ahead on these grand adventures without me holding her hand.  I always remember I am giving her the gift of independence.

Do your kids travel without you?  How do you deal with the separation?